I/III. http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/shock-defeat-for-bjp-in-chhattisgarh-civic-elections/99/
Shock defeat for BJP in Chhattisgarh civic elections Written by Ashutosh Bhardwaj | Raipur | Posted: January 5, 2015 3:34 am | Updated: January 5, 2015 3:38 am ***In its worst ever defeat in Chhattisgarh -- its first electoral loss since coming to power at the Centre -- the BJP on Sunday suffered heavy losses in the municipal elections. The party managed to win just four of the 10 municipal corporations, 16 of 39 municipalities and 37 of 105 nagar panchayats.*** [Emphasis added.] In 2009, the BJP had won six of the nine municipal corporations, 18 of 32 municipalities and 71 of the 127 nagar panchayats. The party's defeat was spread across the state, as it lost in the tribal zones of north Surguja and south Bastar, central plains, rural centres as well as the biggest urban seat of capital Raipur. The results mark a huge gain for the Congress, which won only one of the 11 Lok Sabha seats in Chhattisgarh last May. On Sunday, the Congress won four municipal corporations, 16 municipalities and 50 nagar panchayats -- its 2009 tally was three municipal corporations, 12 municipalities and 44 nagar panchayats. However, while it is a vote against the BJP, it is not completely for the Congress. Many independent candidates clinched prominent seats, including two municipal corporations, seven municipalities and 18 nagar panchayats. Both these municipal corporations, Chirmiri and Raigarh, were with the BJP. The most stunning victory is probably of Madhu, who won the prestigious Raigarh municipal corporation and became Chhattisgarh's first kinnar (third gender) mayor. Madhu contested her first election as an independent and spent less than a lakh on the campaign. The results come as a major blow for Chief Minister Raman Singh, who had personally led the campaign through the state. Almost in every seat, his face was projected instead of the local candidate. All local TV channels covered him live, and the BJP splurged on the campaign, even as the Congress seemed invisible. The BJP even conceded the Raipur mayoral seat -- home constituencies of ministers Brijmohan Agrawal and Rajesh Moonat and seven-time BJP MP Ramesh Bais -- to the Congress. The entire BJP leadership, including the CM, had undertaken a massive campaign in Raipur. A fortnight before the elections, party president Amit Shah also visited Raipur. "We will review the results," said the CM on Sunday. During the campaign, he had repeatedly claimed that the "Congress will be completely wiped out, Chhattisgarh will become the first Congress-free state." "The results are unexpected," said Agrawal. Chhattisgarh is now the only BJP-ruled state where the party is in a poor state. The results can be attributed to several recent developments, all of which affected the CM's image. Last year, the state saw a fake ration cards scam under which nearly 14 lakh BPL cards were issued to ineligible and non-existent beneficiaries, causing a loss of over Rs 2000 crore to the state. However, the face of the scam, BJP leader Lilaram Bhojwani who got BPL cards for his family in the CM's home constituency of Rajnandgaon, was rewarded and elevated as the party's state treasurer. Bhojwani is known to be close to the CM and was his official representative. Then there was the sterilisation camp in Bilaspur, which caused 13 deaths. But the CM continued to defend Health Minister Amar Agrawal. He also defended Speaker Gaurishankar Agrawal over his illegal acquisition of 4.5 acres of government land in Raipur. Last month, the Bilaspur High Court finally served a notice to the state government on the issue. The state government is yet to fulfil its poll promises, including the procurement of "every grain of rice". Singh's decision to limit paddy procurement without offering any alternative to the farmers, who have become completely dependent on paddy farming due to his policies, caused massive dissent. The defeat will intensify the demand for Singh's removal being made by several state and central leaders. "He is no longer chaur (rice) wala baba. He is now Ciprocin wala baba," said PCC chief Bhupesh Baghel, referring to the spurious tablets given by government doctors to women after the Bilaspur sterilisations The results bolster Baghel and his Leader of Opposition T S Sinhadev, as the duo pulled an impressive show despite facing intense factionalism. Annoyed that his men were denied tickets, former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi had pulled out of the campaign. The state recorded a turnout of 77.77 per cent as against 69.47 per cent during last year's Lok Sabha polls, indicating that people came out in large numbers to vote against the ruling government. While the voting percentage for men was 78.02 per cent, for women it was 77.55 per cent. II/III. http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-congress-manages-to-do-well-in-chhattisgarh-civic-body-polls-bjp-loses-seats-2049674 Congress manages to do well in Chhattisgarh civic body polls; BJP loses seats Sunday, 4 January 2015 - 11:10pm IST Updated: Sunday, 4 January 2015 - 11:12pm IST | Place: Raipur | Agency: PTI After suffering crushing defeats in Assembly and parliamentary polls in the past year, Congress put up a good show in the Chhattisgarh civic body elections and won four out of ten municipal seats, while the ruling BJP was reduced to from six to four. The remaining two seats were won by independent candidates, including a eunuch. "Congress won municipal corporation polls in Raipur, Ambikapur, Korba and Jagdalpur, while the BJP bagged Bilaspur, Rajnandagon, Durg and the newly-formed Dhamtari," an election official told PTI. "Two other corporations, namely Chirmiri and Raigarh were won by independent candidates," the official said. In the previous civic body polls held in 2009, the BJP had won six seats, while the Congress won three. The prominent Raipur municipal corporation was retained by Congress as its candidate Pramod Dubey defeated BJP's Schchidanand Upasane by a whopping margin of 16,338 votes. Two-time corporator Dubey was chosen as the Congress candidate this time, denying ticket to incumbent Congress mayor Kiranmayee Nayak which proved fruitful for the party. Jagdalpur's seat in the Maoist-heartland of Bastar region was won by the Congress's Jatin Jaiswal who defeated BJP's Yogendra Kaushik by 2,637 votes. BJP's incumbent mayor Kiran Dev was denied ticket from the seat this time. However, the Congress failed to retain the Bilaspur municipal corporation despite raising the issue of botched sterilisation surgeries which occurred during November last year. Ramsharan Yadav, the new face of Congress suffered a loss at the hands of BJP's Kishore Rai by a huge margin of 35,117 votes for Bilaspur mayoral post. III. http://www.firstpost.com/politics/chhattisgarh-madhu-kinnar-becomes-first-eunuch-win-mayoral-elections-state-2029349.html Chhattisgarh: Madhu Kinnar becomes first eunuch to win mayoral elections in state Jan 4, 2015 17:47 IST Raigarh: A eunuch on Sunday scripted history by winning the Mayor's election in Chhattisgarh's Raigarh Municipal Corporation, defeating his nearest rival from BJP. Independent candidate Madhu Kinnar won the Mayoral election of the Raigarh Municipal Corporation by 4,537 votes against BJP's Mahaveer Guruji, an election official said. Madhu Kinnar became the first eunuch in Chhattisgarh to win mayoral elections from Raigarh. ***Madhu, 35, belonging to Dalit community, is the first eunuch to get elected as Mayor in the state*** [emphasis added]. "People have shown faith in me. I consider this win as love and blessings of people for me. I'll put in my best efforts to accomplish their dreams," Madhu said after winning the election. After studying upto eighth standard, Madhu, whose real name is Naresh Chauhan, took up different works and used to collect money by singing and dancing in trains. "I only spent Rs 60,000-70,000 from my earnings during my campaign. It was the public support that encouraged me to enter the poll fray for the first time and because of their support only, I emerged as the winner," Madhu added. The ruling BJP in the state had fielded Mahaveer Guruji for the election, denying ticket to its incumbent Mayor Mahendra Chauhatha, while Congress had shown confidence in Jethuram Manhar for the third time. On Madhu's victory, the main Opposition, Congress, said that "it is BJP's loss, not Madhu's win." "There was no Modi wave in Raigarh this time. People of Raigarh were fed up with the corruption of BJP, hence they voted for Madhu. It is not Madhu Kinnar's victory, but it's a loss of BJP," Raigarh district Congress (urban) president Narendra Negi said. Accepting the defeat, the BJP said that they will review the people's mandate. "We accept the decision of people and we will review it," BJP district president Rajesh Sharma said. The outgoing BJP Mayor Chauhatha, who was denied ticket this time, said the people have rejected the candidates of both the leading parties. The selection of candidate should be done looking into the situation, he said. The counting of votes for the two-phase civic body polls for 154 urban bodies in the state is underway today. PTI -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. 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